132 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



DROVES OF LYC^NID CATERPILLARS HERDED BY ANTS. 



BY MRS. WYLLY, OF INDIA.* 



The larvae of Taruciis thcophrastus Fabricus are cultivated and pro- 

 tected by the large, common black ants of Indian gardens and houses. 

 The caterpillar, which varies in colour from light pure green to a dark 

 reddish tint [this is a common variation in Lycsenid larvae], is about three- 

 quarters of an inch long, louse-like in shape, and slow in movement, and 

 it feeds on the Zizyphus jiijnba, a small, thorny bush of the jungles with 

 an edible, astringent, yellowish fruit, the " Byr-coolie " of the natives. 

 Some Lycsenidae larvae have the power of protruding and retracting at 

 will two small, fleshy tentacles or horns, each tufted with a brush of fine 

 hairs, from the upper surface of the tail segments. Between [on the next 

 segment anteriorly] these tentacles is a small slit, from which they exude 

 a small drop of a juice of some sort eagerly sought by the ants, and which 

 they can generally procure by stroking the larvae gently with their 

 antennae. The ants set up what appears to be merely a temporary nest 

 at the foot of the tree, the better to carry on their operations. Just before 

 the rains set in, about the middle of June, great activity among the inhabi- 

 tants of a Zizyphus tree may be observed. The ants are busy all day long 

 running along the branches and leaves in search of the larvae, and with- 

 out fail an ant will come to one full-grown, and meditating on the choice 

 of a snug retreat [in which to turn to a pupaj. A friend or two turning 

 up, the ants set to work to guide and drive their caterpillar in the direc- 

 tion they wish him to go, /. e., down the stem of tjie tree towards their 

 nest. This is not always an easy business if the prisoner is refractory 

 and would prefer going somewhere else ; but as a rule they are docile and 

 easily led. Having kept guard over him until they get him safely into 

 his proper berth in the row, and he has accepted their ultimatum as final, 

 he drops off into a preliminary doze and undergoes his transformation 

 into a pupa. If you gently scrape away the loose earth piled up at the 

 base of the tree you will see some hundreds of larvae and pupa? in all 

 stages of development arranged in a broad even band all round the trunk 

 and lightly covered with earth. The ants object to their being uncovered, 

 and will immediately set to work to re-cover them, and if you persist. 



* Reprinted from an article entitled Butterflies and Ants, by Lionel de Niceville, 

 F.E.S., in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vol. III., p. 164 (1888). 



